34 KAM Mathematical Colloquium
Prof. LOUIS H. KAUFFMAN
University of Illinois at Chicago
INTRODUCTION TO QUANTUM LINK INVARIANTS
March 16, 1999
Lecture Room S6, Charles University, Malostranske nam. 25, Praha 1
10:30 AM
Abstract
This talk will construct invariants of knots and links by the method of state summation -- an analog to partition functions in statistical mechanics and also an analog to the coloring and Tutte polynomials in graph theory. In particular, we discuss the bracket polynomial model of the Jones polynomial and generalizations of this idea. We discuss how naturally these models fit into the context of quantum amplitudes and explain some of the fascinating relationships of knots and statistical mechanics.
This colloquium is organized by KAM jointly with DIMATIA.
